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Congress non-committal on UPA fighting next elections together

	March 31, 2008

The Congress has refrained from taking a position at this stage over Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar’s proposal that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) constitutes should fight the coming Lok Sabha elections collectively. The Congress, however, praised the UPA coalition experiment saying that it has been a success. The party has also steered clear of the issue of the UPA’s primeministerial candidate vis-a-vis the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) projecting L.K. Advani as PM-in-waiting.



On Pawar’s recent proposal, AICC spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said : “This would be considered by the UPA of which Congress president Sonia Gandhi is the Chairperson, whatever poll strategy is to be adopted would be considered and discussed by her and the leaders of the UPA constituents”.



Asked why the Congress has been shying away from projecting the incumbent PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh as its obvious choice for the post even for the next poll, Natarajan denied it, saying “Dr. Singh is the incumbent PM, but we do not want to formulate our position on the BJP terms”.



The Congress leadership’s “new face,” Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi’s 38 year old heir apparent, is already being groomed in the party for bigger roles ahead. Speaking separately, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh termed Pawar’s suggestion as “good” and worth consideration by the UPA leadership.



On the PM issue, he said the Congress has never projected its CM or PM candidates,” indicating that such issues are decided by the party only after the elections.





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Gandhi surname helps : Rahul



Calling for making the political system a more open one, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has admitted that he has an edge in politics due to his “surname.”



Gandhi said his progress in the present Indian political system would not have been easy if he was not connected to somebody.”



The Congress leader who was addressing students of Manipal College at the TMA Pai International Convention Centre in Mangalore, added, “I am a permanent face of the problem.”



Replying to a query by a student whether he would have joined politics, if he was just a normal youth without the Gandhi surname, he said, “I would try to be in politics, but progress would not have been easy if I was not connected to somebody,”

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Congress a jolt in Maharashtra



The Congress, which was sure of getting all of its three candidates elected in the polling for nine seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, got a jolt when its most secure candidate, Sudhakar Gangane, considered close to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, got defeated on March 26.



The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) each had fielded three candidates and the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party put up two each. One needed 29 votes to win since the Electoral College, the Assembly, has 289 seats.





The Congress, having 75 seats of its own, counted on 11 Independents, three CPI(M) members and one nominated member. Each of its three candidates had a comfort margin of one vote. But the candidates of its ally, the NCP, were not so comfortable.



The Congressmen who have always been suspicious of Union Agriculture Minister and NCP leader Sharad Pawar blamed the NCP for “spiriting away” half of the independents from its side to get its three candidates elected.





UPA down to a minority in Rajya Sabha



The UPA government has been reduced to a minority in the Rajya Sabha after the latest round of elections for 57 seats. The UPA-Left coalition is down from 118 to 115 members in the 235-member Upper House.



The figure includes Congress and Left-backed Independent member Ahmad Sayeed Malihabadi from West Bengal, Independent member Parimal Nathwani from Jharkhand who was supported by a section of the UPA including some Congress MLAs, and Biswajit Daimary of the Bodoland People’s Front. It also takes into consideration Independent members in the current House including P C Alexander, Rahul Bajaj, Arjun Sengupta and U. G. Brahma as well as those nominated by the UPA Government.



This means the UPA Government will have to keep BSP members in good humour if it hopes to push through any contentious legislation in the Rajya Sabha in future, like the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, and the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Bill. The BSP has six members in the Upper House at present. UPA crisis managers may also like to keep their channels open with the Samajwadi Party which has 16 members.



The UPA’s strength has come down because elections could not be held to fill up four vacancies in Karnataka, where the Assembly remains dissolved. The UPA managed to retain its pre-election tally of 33 out of the 57 seats for which elections were held.

The House strength came down from 245 to 235 because of the four vacancies in Karnataka, disqualification of BJP member Jai Narain Prasad Nishad, vacation of the seat by T R Zeliang from Nagaland who was elected to the state Assembly, and four existing vacancies.



The BJP was a big gainer as it added five more MPs to its pre-election tally of nine (out of the 57 seats). The BJP now has 50 members in the Upper House. The Congress gained one seat, but its total tally came down from 71 to 69 because of the loss of the seats from Karnataka.



Pawar to move to Rajya Sabha



Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Thursday, March 27, that he would not be fighting Lok Sabha elections henceforth. He would step aside to give younger people a chance, he said.



“I have been contesting from Baramati for over 40 years now, and the people here have elected me consistently with record votes. Now I think I should move to the Rajya Sabha and pave the way for the young,” he said.



Pawar was speaking in Rotigaon, in Daund Taluka, 30 km away from Baramati.